It only seems appropriate to show you a few pictures of my house. First, however, a DISCLAIMER: I know I have completely too much brown, leather and wood. Frankly, it drives me crazy. I have all kinds of plans in my head to change it. Some will happen, some will not. I have a husband who happens to love wood and leather and does not like fabric or paint. He also doesn't like curtains, carpet or rugs. What's a girl to do?! Because he lives here too and I really do love him, I try to accommodate but, I have to confess, there are many times when I want to tell him to go live on a ranch with some cowboys. I love fabric and paint. I love light and bright colors and I like things cozy and cheerful. (Sigh). Needless to say, I have my challenges. Here are some pictures of my house:
First, the entry way. What I like about my house is that we really have some great features. We have beautiful tile work and fabulous moldings that are reminiscent of older homes which I love.
Off to the right is the dining room. Totally embarassing!! This was done during the height of the faux finish craze we went through here in Texas. I did it myself and it shows. It's hard to tell by the pictures but it looks like leather so my husband LOVES it. Me...not so much. At the time I was trying to give my husband a western-feeling dining room and that is what we got. The Texas flag actually flew over the state capitol in Austin (his aunt used to be a representative a long time ago). Cool story but the whole thing has to go! I've got a few ideas in my head about how to get it where I want it to be but for now, at least one of us is happy. I just ask that you avert our eyes when you come in the front door - haha!
This is our living room that I just recently had painted. The walls were light before and I wanted to infuse some color as well as "warm up" the space. There are 20 foot ceilings in there and it always seemed so big and museum-like. The darker wall color really did what I wanted it to but I definitely have some re-decorating to do. The furniture needs to lighten things up and I'm so ready to get rid of all that leather. We're planning to get new living room furniture so in the meantime, I just have to have faith that it will all come together.
The kitchen opens up to the living room.
The breakfast area:
The master bedroom. This was one of the toughest areas for me to decorate (the other is the living room) because my husband had a strong opinion about this room. As I mentioned, he doesn't like fabric and he likes very masculine decor. Again, it's brown, but I am happy with how this room is coming along. I still have some tweaking I want to do...new lamps, add some color. But so far, I think it's a good blend of our styles.
In the corner of our master bedroom (which I am not going to show you) is my desk. I am planning to move it to the spare bedroom in our house which currently serves as a workout, Wii-playing, tv watching, crafting space. It's off our kitchen and when my kids were toddlers it was their play room. I plan to re-claim the space this year by turning it into my study/craft/workout room.
Here's my daughter's room. She used to have a canopy that hung from the ceiling over her bed (I made it to look like the flower canopies from PB Kids) which got torn down last week when she and a friend closed it around her bed and then did gymnastics and tumbling. Kids!
Kamryn's room is filled with a hodgpodge of furniture. The bed was my husband's bed from his bachelor days (it's from Ethan Allen so it's a great bed and he refuses to le me paint it). The dresser and dressing table are antiques from my Grandma's house. The night stand is a Craigslist find that I decopauged (sp?) with scrapbook paper cutouts. And the bookcase is from good ol' Target. My daughter is tired of pink and wants lavender...so there's another project on the horizon!
That's the tour for now. I still need to show you a few more rooms but I need to take more pictures first. I hope you enjoyed it and I can't wait to share my tweaks and updates with you as I continue this blog!
